CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

Just to whet your appetite...

2009-12-24T13:53:00.002Z

... upcoming games from Arcen:

Both pick up genres with well-populated markets, but add new twists to the genre. Expected release in the first and fourth quarter of 2010 respectively.

In the second game, as you would expect from Arcen Games, the AI is going to be a lot more developed than most tower defence games. The people you rule over are going to be more dynamic and developed too - it's definitely one to look out for. (If I ever get round to giving AI Wars, hopefully Chris might slip me a review copy!?)

More news as it comes, but both of these look well worth keeping your eyes open for.

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

First Thoughts - Republic Commando

2009-12-23T18:44:00.003Z

Since I'm not generally much of a fan of FPS games I wouldn't necessarily have got a game like this if it wasn't a Star Wars game (I admit it, I'm a Star Wars geek - look, I can't help it!). Perhaps that's why after the first few missions I found that it got very challenging quite quickly.

It's a team-based game where you not only play a commando - not just your everyday, run-of-the-mill clone - but control a small team of specialist commandos. The game looks great and plays very well, with fairly intuitive team controls (that I'm sure will become second nature after a short while).

Your team mates make comments to you or sometimes each other, which is quite entertaining. The action gets fairly intense and it seems quite linear, but there is a little scope for trying different strategies. Looking good so far.

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

LEGO Rock Band Trailers

2009-12-22T00:01:00.001Z

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

The Beatles - Rock Band Trailer

2009-12-21T23:58:00.001Z

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

Avatar - the Video Game

2009-12-21T23:52:00.003Z

Ubisoft are heavily promoting their new game of the film. I'm a little skeptical of movie tie-in games on the whole but there have been some really good ones, so... if you want to know more, check out the official website.

Game Trailer:

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

Hornado - a fantastic freeware oldschool shoot-'em-up

2009-12-19T15:47:00.005Z

Someone (who shall remain nameless, but they knows who they are!) expressed the view quite recently that freeware was a waste of time, and that if anyone came up with a good game they'd charge money for it. I can understand why people might think that, but having been interested in the freeware scene for a decade or more, I knew that it wasn't true. So, in thinking about what games might conclusively prove to doubters that there really are some fantastic freeware games available, I remembered Hornado, a horizontally- scrolling shooter, remeniscent of R-Type and others that can be viewed as the best of the genre.

Don't take my word for it though - check out the offical website and start downloading! I think you'll be surprised at just how good it is - if you're not surprised, you'll probably be astonished...

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

Fifty Thousand Page Views!

2009-12-16T18:00:00.003Z

Today this blog reached 50,000 page views - seemed like a notable enough milestone to do a blog post about. :-D

Haven't had too much time to blog here recently, but look out for more news / reviews on Star Wars: Republic Commando and retro indie game BoH soon...

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

PC Game Reviews by Genre

2009-04-28T16:04:00.036+01:00

Adventure Game Reviews

Sam & Max Season One - 10/10
Sam & Max Season Two - 9/10
And Then There Were None - 6/10
Return to Mysterious Island 8/10
Journey to the Moon - 9/10
Runaway: A Road Adventure - 8/10
Secret Files: T unguska - 5/10
Runaway 2: The Dream of the Turtle - 6/10
Wallace & Gromit Grand Adventures Episode One: Fright of the Bumble Bees - 5/10
Wallace & Gromit Grand Adventures Episode Two: The Last Resort - 7/10
Full Throttle - 6/10
Wallace & Gromit Grand Adventures Episode Three: Muzzled! - 6/10
Keepsake - 5/10
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1: Launch of the Secret Narwal - 9/10
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures Episode Four - The Bogey Man - 7/10
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay - 7/10
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3: The Lair of the Leviathan - 9/10
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood - 8/10
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 5 - Rise of the Pirate God - 7/10

RPG Reviews

Spellforce: The Order of the Dawn- 8/10
Beyond Divinity - 6/10
The Battle for Middle Earth - 8/10
Neverwinter Nights Platinum Edition - 9/10

Racing Game Reviews

Moto Racer 3: Gold Edition - 8/10
New Star Grand Prix - 9/10
Super Laser Racer - 6/10

Sports Game Reviews

New Star Soccer 4 - 7/10
New Star Soccer 2010 - 8/10
Awesome Soccer - 7/10

3D Platform Game Reviews

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Anniversary - 8/10
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - 6/10
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 7/10
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 6/10

Stealth Game Reviews

Thief: The Deadly Shadows - 3/10

Strategy / Management Game Reviews

Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria - 9/10
Civilisation 3: Call To Power - 9/10
Four Four Two: Touchline Passion - 8/10
Stronghold 2 Deluxe - 4/10

Retro Game Reviews

Bubble Bobble / Rainbow Islands - 9/10
Atari: 80 Classic Games - 5/10

Online Game Reviews

Evony - 8/10
Molehill Empire - 6/10
Adventure Quest - 9/10
X-Kings - 6/10
The West - 7/10

Puzzle Game Reviews

Plants vs Zombies - 9/10

There's a bit of overlap between genres... for instances Warlords IV and Spellforce both have elements of RPG and Strategy... I've just put them where they seem to fit most.

CaptainD - PC Gaming Blog

PC Game Review - Tales of Monkey Island Episode 5 - Rise of the Pirate God

2009-12-08T19:09:00.003Z

The final act in Season One of TellTale Games' Tales of Monkey Island has a lot of references to the very first Monkey Island Game (Secret of Monkey Island), which fans of the series will definitely enjoy. In terms of the plot, Guybrush Threepwood has come to a sticky end at the hands of LeChuck, who is now invested with awesome voodoo power (again - but even more than before). Of course, being an indomitable sort of fellow who refuses to give up, Guybrush decides that being dead isn't really all that much of a problem. At the crossroads where pirates choose their final piratey destiny, he must somehow find a way back into the world of the living.

There are lots of twists and turns in the plot; like the rest of the series, the story is very well written and has its own unique style, while throwing a knowing nod to the original Monkey Island games at regular intervals. The graphics are very good, the music good (though perhaps not quite as good as previous episodes - there seems to be a little too much repetition), and once again the voice acting is superb. There is lots of humour as always and quite a few of the puzzles are noticeably trickier than the last couple of episodes.

However despite this final episode being slightly longer and more challenging then episodes 3 and 4, it is also less enjoyable. It's not only the music that is a bit too repetitious - some of the puzzles rely overmuch on repeatedly revisiting locations and this, along with the end sequence (very reminiscent of the last part of SoMI) gets rather annoying.

Still, Rise of the Pirate God is, by and large, still the enjoyable piratey adventure gaming fun that we've come to expect; to me it just lacks something that episodes 1,3 and 4 had. I for one will certainly be happy to see another season (or two ... or three or more) of Tales of Monkey Island in the future.

Rating: 7/10

Overall Season Rating: 8/10 (total ratings 40/50)

Tales of Monkey Island Episode 1: Launch of the Secret Narwal - 9/10
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay - 7/10
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3: The Lair of the Leviathan - 9/10
Tales of Monkey Island Episode 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood - 8/10

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

Press Release from Koonsolo Games - Games With Big Machines! (?!?)

2009-12-07T15:15:00.001Z

December 7, 2009 - Koonsolo Games announces that their new lineup of games will put you in control of bulldozers, dump trucks, excavators and other heavy equipment. They will call it Big Machine Games, and the first game in the series is already in development.

Toy cranes, dump trucks and other machines are very popular among young boys. Even adults have fond memories of them. But strangely enough there aren't many video games that feature them. The few that do, are realistic simulations lacking any form of gameplay. Koonsolo Games is therefore going to put some fun and refreshing gameplay elements into their Big Machine Games. It will be the perfect excuse to relive the fun you had as a kid, but this time packaged in a challenging game.

Big Machine Games will be available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The first game that is scheduled for this series will be called 'Big Bulldozer Game'.

More info can be found on the official website http://www.bigmachinegames.com and http://www.bigbulldozer.com

About Koonsolo

Koonsolo is a small independent game development studio committed to create games that are original, amazing, and most of all, games that provide pure carefree fun.

Koonsolo was founded in 2006 by Koen Witters, who has been creating games for fun as long as he can remember. It first started out by inventing board games, and after playing Commodore 64 and those early arcade games, he was completely sold on this new form of entertainment. At the age of 14 he learned how to program, with only one goal in mind: to create computer games.

After receiving his Master's degree in Computer Science, he started working as a professional game programmer. This was extremely fun, but the passion of creating his own original and exciting games never went away. So in 2006 he finally started up his own company, Koonsolo. After finishing some contracted game projects, Koonsolo is now committed to create innovative indie games, available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Contact us at
koen@koonsolo.com
http://www.koonsolo.com

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

First Thoughts on Tales of Monkey Island Episode 5: The Rise of the Pirate God

2009-12-05T19:31:00.002Z

Got my review copy today (the official launch is 8th December) - can't say too much because of the press embargo but I think it's safe to say that the season finale has a few twists and turns that you probably weren't expecting. A nice twist on the classic insult sword fighting concept too.

Full review coming on Tuesday!

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

PC Game Review - Stronghold 2 Deluxe

2009-12-04T22:22:00.002Z

I really like the RTS genre and everything about this game had looked good - I thought it even might be a logical successor to Defender of the Crown with its promises of a full simulation of caste life including holding feasts, jousting etc. Unfortunately a few key design flaws prevented me from really enjoying it.

To start off with all looks goo - nice cut scenes and a plethora of options. The game also has two main game modes - peaceful and battle. Depending which of these missions you go for at the beginning of the main campaign, the game will focus more on building your castle facilities up or bashing the enemy. A nice idea and at first it seemed to be well implemented.

However there are a couple of massive problems. The first is that the graphics, though okay in terms of detail and zoomability, have incredibly bright colours all over the place - a very strange effect that doesn't affect the cut scenes at all - which render the screen quite unpleasant to look at, even with my monitor's brightness levels turned right down. I really can't understand this unless perhaps it's an issue with particular graphic chipsets, and mine just happens to be one of the ones affected (it's a GeForce 9800GT btw - if anyone has had the same experiences / knows more please leave a comment).

The graphics otherwise are quite good, though the game map very quickly begins to look cluttered - the view angle seems just a little odd - though this would of course promote neatly planned building projects from the player, which isn't necessarily a bad thing! The music / sound effects are good and the voice acting is quite comical - I assume this was intentional, and most of the peasants sound like Brummies! - it's quite a nice change having a game that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Other than the whacked-out visuals though, the learning curve is very odd - in both peaceful and aggressive campaigns, missions 1 and 2 are almost too easy even for the introduction to the campaign, mission 3 was challenging and then mission 4 seems initially almost impossible. Coupled with controls that seemed rather awkward and the aforementioned blinding colours onscreen, and it ended up with a game that had all the right ingredients for me - medieval real time strategy and mission-based storyline - yet I didn't get very far with it and I really didn't feel inclined to play it for long.

If the graphical oddities aren't a problem for you and you get into the game, I really have the feeling that it would be very rewarding - but for me, it just didn't work out at all. A real shame and a great opportunity wasted (installing every patch in sight still didn't help unfortunately.)

Somewhat reluctantly, I'm going to give this a rating of 4/10.

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

Hard Disk Drive Reviews

2009-12-04T18:29:00.002Z

Thanks to my guest writer rgathright, I've just posted a number of hard disk drive reviews on this blog. For convenience I've listed them all here:

CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog

Western Digital Caviar® SE WD1200JD 120 GB SATA Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:28:00.000Z

In the end not even 7200 RPM or an 8mb of onboard buffer memory cache could make this storage product attractive enough for me to use. Due to the archaic speed of the Western Digital hard drive, I strongly recommend avoiding the purchase of this product. After waiting over 12 hours to copy all my POV-Ray animation TGA files, I decided to disconnect the drive and be thankful for what little was actually copied over.

Instead you should consider a Patriot 32Gb SSD SATA hard drive or a 2Tb Seagate Barracuda LP hard drive. These drives not only feature quiet operation but also can reduce you energy consumption through reduced spindle speeds or no moving parts at all! Finally, regifting or selling the Western Digital WD1200JD SATA hard drive to a friend will only result in failure because of the poor performance this product exhibited during my testing. Hence, my review title still applies… recycling and hoping for a core refund would be the best thing to do with this hard drive in the year 2009.

In all, I give the Western Digital WD1200JD 120GB Hard Drive two thumbs down.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

Seagate Barracuda LP (ST32000542AS) 2 TB SATA II Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:27:00.000Z

You will enjoy the high capacity of the Seagate Barracuda 2Tb but the real story is the high performance which gives you the ability to transfer files at relatively high speeds. The high performance and eco-friendly features really do set this drive ahead of the pack. The low spin speed, 5900 RPM, of the drive also means that you will experience reduced power consumption and heat production than traditional hard drives on the market today. The only problem you face is ensuring that your motherboard or raid card supports 48bit LBA. A quick check of the manufacturer’s website should verify this for you.

In all, I give the Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB ST32000542AS Hard Drive two thumbs up.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

Seagate DiamondMax® 10 160 GB SATA Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:25:00.000Z

First, if you are just going to use this drive to store files as a secondary hard drive, go for it! The drive runs reasonably cool and is quiet so it will not interfere with the daily operation of your home computer.

However, I learned a lot writing this review. We now know that there is a lot going on beneath the cover of a SATA hard drive. A hard drive causing Super PI to crash is never a good thing. The slow performance of this drive in my Windows XP SP2 benchmarks was alarming to me. Until now, I never realized that using this hard drive as a replacement in my computers could affect my ability to multi-task in Windows but it clearly does. For this reason, I strongly recommend considering a newer SSD hard drive like the Patriot 32Gb if you are upgrading an older SATA I specification based computer for faster performance.

In all, I give the Maxtor 6B160M0 160GB Hard Drive a split decision, one thumb up and one thumb down.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

Hitachi Travelstar 5K320 HTS543216L9A30 160 GB SATA Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:17:00.002Z

The blazing fast performance of the file system chipset within my ASUS 1005HA netbook leaves me to believe that the Hitachi 160Gb SATA hard drive is holding me back. The poor access speeds in the benchmarks tell most of the tale for us. Yet, the slow transfer speeds from the SDHC card to the drive should fully convince you that this product is not anywhere near the best in the world. As a result, I would strongly recommend anyone owning this hard drive to consider replacing it with a Western Digital Scorpio Black 250Gb hard drive to increase your overall system speed today. The Scorpio Black boasts access times of 14.3 Ms and has burst speeds as high as 237.7 Mb/s.

However, if you are in the market for a replacement drive, I am happy to report no stability problems with this Hitachi product so far. In all I give the Hitachi 160Gb SATA drive two thumbs down.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

Transcend 32GB SSD, 2.5- Inch, SATA, MLC SATA Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:19:00.001Z

Ignore all the claims by Transcend that the V Series is a good drive. Transcend V Series SSD drives have disappointed me with cheap construction and subpar performance numbers. Luckily, I bought a Patriot Warp 32Gb SSD earlier this year and was able to realize that there is a difference in build quality in these drives.

The game with buying SSD drives is trying to find one that can deliver true high speed file system transactions that are on par with disk based drives. At this time, some hard drives are still faster than SSD’s with the 2Tb Seagate Barracuda ST32000542AS leading the pack with burst speeds of 233.3 Mb/s according to my own testing.

I paid $145 for my Transcend 32Gb SSD from Amazon. In all, I give the Transcend V Series 32Gb SSD SATA Hard Drive two thumbs down with a Bud Adams wave for good measure.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500 GB SATA II Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:15:00.001Z

You can find faster drives on the market today but at the current price of just $60 at most online retailers this drive is extremely hard to beat at its current Transfer Speed and Capacity ability. Some drives gain more speed by spinning at 10,000 RPM and others utilize solid state memory technology to achieve the elusive high throughputs, yet for all of this comes the high cost of acquiring the materials to build and manufacture the products.

The Samsung HD501LJ stands on its own in a market flooded with posers. I have finally found the drive that suits my budget and speed needs the only remaining problem is finding it. You should be prepared to wait at least a month after ordering since this product is backordered at several stores on the internet.

In all, I give the Samsung Spinpoint HD501LJ 500Gb Hard Drive two thumbs up!

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 160GB HDD, 3.5, SATAII, 7200rpm, 8MB Cache (ST3160318AS) 160 GB SATA Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:22:00.000Z

The Seagate 160Gb SATA drive is by far the fastest that I own in the 160Gb to 80Gb capacity range. As seen by the benchmark results above, this drive can outperform your expectations in both SATA I (1.5Gb/s) and SATA II (3.0Gb/s) file system interfaces. I recommend that the drive can be used in a backup role, primary boot partition and as drive for a portable hard drive enclosure.

I paid just $40 for my first hard drive. In all, I give the Seagate Barracuda ST3160318AS 160GB Hard Drive a solid two thumbs up if used for the purposes outlined in this review.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

PDP Systems Patriot Warp 32GB Solid State - SATA-300, 2.5 32 GB SATA Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:21:00.000Z

Almost everyone will agree that the Patriot Warp 32Gb SSD is one of the fastest SATA drives on the planet today. However there are two main detractors: cost and capacity. First, unless you have the fiscal budget of NASA, you will never be able to afford 250 Gb of SSD capacity on a typical American budget today. The only option will be to buy multiple drives and span them as a RAID 0. The tough 2.5” form factor is nice though and should lead to some interesting solid state computer systems in the coming years as prices inevitably drop.

I paid $130 for my 32Gb SSD. In all, I give the Patriot Warp 32Gb SSD SATA Hard Drive two thumbs up.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

Western Digital My Passport Essential 320GB External USB 2.0 Portable - Black Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:20:00.000Z

The WD Elements WDBAAA3200ABK is a solid drive that has an impressive 298Gb NTFS formatted capacity. You are going to find that the drive operates differently from one computer to another as various file system bottlenecks arise but the most important fact is that this drive can get the job done quickly on the right computer.

If you want to purchase this product, I suggest shopping around first. First, check out the online retailers listed at the bottom of this review. Second consider shopping for a used WD Elements drive on Ebay since the auctions are usually offering the product for half the price of retail editions.

In all, I would give the Western Digital Elements 320Gb USB drive two thumbs up.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

Western Digital Scorpio Black 250Gb SATA Hard Drive Review

2009-12-04T18:18:00.000Z

Even though you will have some problems mounting this drive due to its high vibration, I really enjoy the speed it offers me. The 16Mb of cache and 7200 RPM rotational speed mean that very few 2.5” drives are going to be able to compete. I paid just $75 for this drive at Amazon.com and will likely order more soon. Just remember to buy the Black edition of this drive if you want to see these same performance numbers.

In all, I give the Western Digital 250Gb Scorpio Black WD2500BEKT SATA drive two thumbs up.

Read the full review here.

This was a guest post for CaptainD's PC Gaming Blog by rgathright.

nVidia Drivers - update time

2009-12-04T18:11:00.002Z

Just a quick message for anyone with an nVidia card who hasn't updated their drivers in the last month or so - head over to the nVidia drivers page, it's time for you to get up to date!

CaptainD - PC Gaming Blog

Guybrush lives!

2009-12-03T22:59:00.002Z

Well you knew that rumours of the demise of our favourite pirate were greatly exaggerated, surely?!

CaptainD - PC Gaming Blog